About 45 minutes south of Page, Arizona, you’ll find Lees Ferry Campground. It’s at the southern end of Lake Powell, within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This beautiful National Park Service campground backs up to the Vermilion Cliffs. There’s plenty to do in the area for visitors.
It’s a perfect overnight spot or a place to spend a few days exploring the sites near Page in the northern Arizona area.
The campground location is an excellent launching site for visiting the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness to the west of the campground, the Navajo Indian Reservation and Antelope Canyon to the east, and Lake Powell to the north.
Travel a little further south and you’ll land in the Grand Canyon.
Read below to learn more about staying at the Lees Ferry campground.
Lees Ferry Campground Location
The campground is located in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and backs up to the beautiful Vermilion Cliffs.
The address is Lees Ferry Rd, Marble Canyon, AZ 86036.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Fees
The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area has an entrance fee that is good for a week.
You will need to pay the entrance fee for the Recreation Area.
If you have a National Park Pass, then you do not need to pay the fee as it includes access to this area.
As you enter the Lees Ferry area, you’ll see a pay station on your left.
This is a self-pay station that accepts credit cards only.
Finding the Campground
Once you pay, you’ll continue driving into the Lees Ferry area toward the campground.
You’ll continue driving through a canyon between large red cliffs and some interesting scenery.
The roads are all paved, so all types of RVs will easily navigate the drive into the campground.
Signs will direct you to the Lees Ferry Campground.
Campground Fees
Once you enter the campground, you must register, select a campsite, pay your fee, and hang your registration tag at your campsite.
A ranger comes through every day to check to make sure everyone has paid.
Sites are first come, first-served, and reservations are not accepted.
In 2024, the rate was $20 per night, or $10 with a senior pass.
Campsites with the Best Views
The campground is located high up above the Colorado River, in between the colorful Vermilion Cliffs and the Colorado river below.
The campsites at the front of the campground that are closest to the river have spectacular views of the river below.
Campsites #45 and #47, in particular, have fabulous views of the river.
If the area gets windy (which it did one night when we were there), those sites will likely be the windiest since they are at the front of the hill.
Plan to get there early in the day if you would like one of these campsites, as they are usually the first ones to be taken.
When we visited in October, the campground never filled up, and was mostly empty by about 10am in the morning.
So if you get there early enough, you may be able to snag one of the primo campsites overlooking the Colorado River with a covered patio.
The other campsites are a combination of back-in sites and pull-through sites.
The campsites are spread out with covered picnic tables and trees spread throughout the campground.
We camped in a pull-through campsite which had plenty of room for our 27-foot Airstream and full-length F-350 pickup truck.
We’re over 50 feet long combined, so most rigs will have no problem fitting in the pull-through spots.
The back-in sites seem to be a little shorter than the pull-through campsites in the campground.
The sunsets over the cliffs at night were spectacular.
Lees Ferry Campground Amenities
The campground is dry camping, meaning that there are no hookups at each campsite.
There are no water, electrical, or sewer connections at the campsites.
However, there are restrooms with flush toilets, but no showers.
There is a large dish sink in a separate area of the restrooms which is available for filling up large containers with water. It includes a spigot that you could technically attach a water hose to, but potable water is also available by the dump station.
We had AT&T cell service at Lees Campground.
Dump Station
The RV dump station and potable water is not directly in the campground, but just around the corner from the actual campground.
There are signs directing you to the location.
Keep driving past the campground away from the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area main entrance and toward the river and you’ll see the sign for the RV dump station.
If for some reason you forget to dump or need to dump your tanks again, the Maverik gas station in downtown Page will also let you dump for free and fill up with potable water.
We stopped there on our way to Lees Ferry campground to dump, not knowing there was also a dump station here by the campground.
Things to Do in the Lees Ferry Campground Area
There are plenty of things to do in the immediate Lees Ferry campground area, including taking in the scenery, hiking, fishing, watching rafts on the Colorado River, visiting ruins, and more.
- Hike to the historic Lonely Dell Ranch and pick some pears from the orchard
- Go see condors in their natural habitat at the Condor Viewing Site at the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
- Fish in the Colorado River
- Raft the Colorado River
- Ride an ATV through Crosby Canyon to the shoreline of Lake Powell
- Visit Navajo Bridge
- Explore the White Pocket Recreation Area
- View the horseshoe bend of the Colorado River
- Enjoy Lake Powell
- Explore Antelope Canyon on the Navajo reservation
- Visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon
A map on a sign provided by the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area provides more details about the area.
As you’re coming into the campground, you’ll pass some interesting scenery, including several balanced rocks.
A sign explains how these rocks came into existence.
Apparently rocks like this one were once a part of a cliff above that fell off and rolled to this spot. Since then, much of the slope beneath the rock has eroded away, leaving the rock standing on the original ground it rested upon.
However, this ground will also slowly erode away, and the boulder will also slowly break apart into smaller pieces of rock.
Paria Riffle
The area directly below the campground is known as the Paria Riffle.
The Paria is a small river that feeds into the Colorado River just north of the campground.
You can walk to the location where they meet. Below the campground there is a pretty sandy beach area where you can put your toes in the freezing cold Colorado River and admire the scenery of where the river meets the red rockface of the cliffs above.
The Paria Riffle beach area has a sign stating that the land is a part of the Grand Canyon National Park.
The Grand Canyon National Park extends all the way up to the Marble Canyon area and this is where rafters enter the Colorado River to raft through the Grand Canyon.
Hikes in Lees Ferry Area
The National Park Service posted a sign with several suggested hikes in the Lees Ferry area. These include a combination of easy, moderate, and difficult hikes, as listed below.
We did the first hike listed, the Lonely Dell Ranch trail. It’s an easy trail to a historic Mormon ranch where you can pick fruit for free.
Fishing in Lees Ferry Area
Given that the campground overlooks the Colorado River, there is plenty of fishing available nearby.
However, fishing is subject to regulations governing the area from the Glen Canyon Dam to the Paria Riffle, which is the area of the Colorado River that is directly below the Lees Ferry campground.
All fishermen are required to have an Arizona fishing license and follow the guidelines posted in the sign below.
Rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
Campers can see the area in which whitewater rafters launch their journey into the Grand Canyon via the Colorado River.
With the right camera lens or binoculars, you can watch the rafters float right down the river from the Lees Ferry campground.
These photos were taken from the campsite area nearest the river.
Final Thoughts on Lees Ferry Campground
The National Park Service Lees Ferry campground is conveniently located in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
There are many things to do directly in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as well as north in the Page, Arizona area as well as south at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
Lees Ferry campground makes an excellent base to see the many sights in the northern Arizona area.
